Cleaning of the chain?

TBH i did pressure wash and use grease removing products on a chain....although a left in a bucket of oil and constantly moved all the links....works better than new now. Although this process does take a day or two leaving you bikeless.

Letting it get rusty in the first place is the problem--cleaning it isn't

[carelesschucca]

Originally Posted by Amplimator

I find chain cleaning almost therapeutic (sp?) but then im kinda sad like that.

Not weird in my books, I get the music on and I love it once I'm started. I've got to the stage that I take the back wheel off the bike so the whole chain can be dipped in a bath of Parrafin and cleaned with a tootbrush.

Once the chain is finished I'll clean the now open swing arm and back wheel and replace the lot...

the feeling of satisfaction at a good job it great... Not @nal at all!!!

[Skip]

The DRZ is the first bike I have owned that didn't come with a Scottoiler - and I am loving it - a quick 2 minutes with some Wurth Dry Chain lube after a ride - job done - no mess and the chain doesn't look manky. For me personally after 6 years of cleaning Scottoiler muck off everything around the chain (guard, swing arm, wheels etc etc) having it looking all clean still I am very happy.

I used that Wurth Dry stuff before. While it was great at keepingmy back wheel clean, I kept forgetting when I last lubed it. And of course I couldnt tell by looking at the chain - it always looked dry

I use one of those Kettenmax chain cleaners with parafin then lube it up with Wurth dry, the Tutoro chain oiler keeps the rollers looking wet but I have turned it down so it doesnt fling everywhere, tiny reservoir on it but it will do 250 miles on a rideout without running dry and i can turn it up a bit in wet weather.


I do like a good gadget

Interesting that a lot of people use a toothbrush. I prefer a paintbrush with newspaper on the floor, as it holds more paraffin and so applies more to the chain, as the excess runs off onto the newspaper, it the takes the grit with it and leaves you with a nice clean chain. One of my bikes does a lot of off-road work though and gets a very gritty/muddy/sandy chain.

Much as self lubricating fitments are beneficial in eliminating the manual job of lubricating they do not clean a chain.The chain still collects road grime over a period of time and this is where a good clean of the chain and inside the front sprocket cover is necessary.Just because a chain is wet with oil does not mean it is clean,lubricated,yes,but fragments of dirt start to build up in the front sprocket cover and the chain is running through this all the time and small particles get into the links.A good dousing with paraffin and a paint brush washes the major part of this out from between the links as does regularly removing the front cover and cleaning the rear sprocket keeping the track clean.
A self lubricated chain is not the end of chain maintenance,it still needs cleaning and adjustment if you want a prolonged chain life.

[yorkie_chris]

I dunno, I reckon the constant fling of oil takes the dirt away with it.

I've not cleaned one and my previous one lasted 30k, which I found adequate. Would have lasted longer if I'd changed front sprockets a bit more as well.

So... Back to pressure washing, I don't do that many miles on my bike, but I ride all winter (I do motorway miles at weekends to go see the girlfriend and during the week work away from home with my van).

So pressure washing a chain (I pressure wash the part over the rear sprocket and wheel forward until it's all grime free) isn't such a bad thing? I'm not too worried about the life of it as I won't ever reach 30k as the bike will have been sold long before that. I do perhaps 4k a year...

I can see that pressure washing will perhaps force water in to the joints of the chain and yes, if that dried then rust may spear, but I oil it as soon as it's dried and plenty of oil too..